United States
£ GBP
The stick is a universal toy. Totally natural, all-purpose, free, it offers limitless opportunities for outdoor play and adventure and it provides a starting point for an active imagination and the raw material for transformation into almost anything! As New York's Strong National Museum of Play pointed out when they selected a stick for inclusion in their National Toy Hall of Fame, 'It can be a Wild West horse, a medieval knight's sword, a boat on a stream, or a slingshot with a rubber band ...' In this book Fiona Danks and Jo Schofield offer masses of suggestions for things to do with a stick, in the way of adventures and bushcraft, creative and imaginative play, games, woodcraft and conservation, music and more.
- Discovering sticks
- Adventure and bushcraft sticks
- Make a fire
- Cook over a fire
- Build a den
- Make a DIY tent
- Make a staff
- Make a stick sword
- Make a catapult
- Make an ancient spear-thrower and a spear
- Make a bow and arrows
- Make a pea-shooter
- Magic sticks
- Make a star wand
- Make a wizard's wand
- Make scavenging sticks
- Make a witch's broomstick
- Make a wiggly snake
- Make shadow pictures
- Make stick characters
- Make stick and clay animals
- Make a fairy house or an elf castle
- Make miniature worlds for toy people and animals
- Make hobby animals
- Make woodland monsters
- Make woodland magic carpets
- Make a flying creature
- Make fairy and fish sticks
- Make wild storyboards
- Creative sticks
- Draw in mud and sand
- Make charcoal pencils
- Make a paintbrush
- Make a picture frame
- Make a woody crown
- Make a necklace
- Create stick art for a woodland gallery
- Choose a stirring stick
- Make a nest
- Make a dream-catcher
- Make a loom for wild weaving
- Weave a wild basket
- Make stick and paper lanterns
- Make natural mobiles and wind chimes
- Make a wreath
- Decorate a seasonal stick tree with stick stars
- Stick games
- Throw a stick for a dog
- Play pick-up sticks
- Make a flying machine
- Play capture the flag
- Play quoits
- Play Aunt Sally
- Invent your own stick games
- Do the stick tower challenge
- Play tracking with sticks
- Play the woodland mapping game
- Sunny sticks
- Navigate with a stick and the sun
- Make a sun clock
- Measure the radius of the earth
- Musical sticks
- Make percussion sticks
- Make stick rattles
- Bushcraft busking with a can guitar
- Watery sticks
- Play Pooh sticks
- Mini raft challenge
- Make a pond-dipping net
- Make a fishing rod
- Measure the depth of a stream
- Woodcraft and conservation
- Make your own walking/tracking stick
- Make a stretcher
- Make a mouse trap
- Plant a tree
- Make a habitat pile
- Make a creepy-crawly hotel
- Make a bird feeder
- Stick stuff
- Index
- Acknowledgments
Fiona Danks did a degree in Ecology at Edinburgh University followed by a PGCE in Rural and Environmental Science at Bath College of Higher Education. She worked in environmental education for a number of years, first for the Shropshire Wildlife Trust and then for the Berkshire Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust, organizing training for teachers and taking groups of children out to nature reserves and other wild sites. She then went on to write books about the Chiltern Hills and the Cotswold Hills while working part-time running activities in a pre-school nursery. She currently runs the Trust for Oxfordshire's Environment, a non-profit making company providing grants for a wide range of community and environmental projects across Oxfordshire.
Fiona lives in Watlington in Oxfordshire. Through their website www.goingwild.net Jo and Fiona provide more ideas for outdoor activities and an opportunity for debate on the importance of real world adventures for all young people.
Jo Schofield gained a degree in psychology from Exeter University and began her career working for an educational psychologist in London. After getting involved in the production of a film, she went on to work in the creative department of a TV advertising agency where she began taking still photographs. This led on to her becoming a commercial photographer in Australia and then London. She worked mainly for national editorial magazines such as Country Living. When her children were small she worked in Watlington Primary School and the Dragon school in Oxford, applying her creative knowledge to the classroom with children aged 6-9 years. More recently she has been focusing on writing and photographing for a series of books with co-author Fiona Danks.
Jo lives near Watlington in Oxfordshire. Through their website www.goingwild.net Jo and Fiona provide more ideas for outdoor activities and an opportunity for debate on the importance of real world adventures for all young people.
"it is the most practical lessons this book can teach a young outdoors enthusiast (how to build shelters and sun clocks) that make The Stick Book something special"
- TGO The Great Outdoors
"When I leafed through the book, I was so enthralled that I immediately planned a den-building party and picnic for my daughter's tenth birthday."
- You Magazine – The Mail on Sunday
"A great book to encourage outdoor play and exploration at very little cost!"
- Right Start
"This is an excellent addition to the authors' other books on outdoor play."
- Juno
"Ideal for entertaining all ages."
- Western Morning News
"This book might just get you out of one of those, 'Mammy I'm bored' situations."
- Woman's Way
"Musical instruments, dens and bush craft are all within one's grasp, with a stick! (So is poking an eye out so do be careful.)"
- Four Shires magazine
"This book offers masses of suggestions for things to do with a stick, in the way of adventures and bush craft, creative and imaginative play, games and more."
- Evolve, Natural History magazine
"A book jam-packed full of ideas of sticky stuff! [...] a great resource for practitioners."
- Early Years Educator
"Explores the almost limitless potential for play offered by sticks. It is an attractively packaged book of 70 activities for children in a handy format for stuffing into a rucksack or coat pocket. The book teems with colour photographs and the text is easy to follow."
- BBC Countryfile
"Truly more ideas than you can shake a stick at!"
- Oxfordshire Limited
"What are you waiting for? Go outdoors, grab a stick, have The Stick Book handy, fire up your imagination and off you go. This is an amazingly different book bursting with ideas, a unique guide to fun and games, grab yourself one now!"
- Armadillo
"Fed up with your children's demands for the latest electronic gadgets? Why not give them a stick instead?"
- Oxford Times
"Delights in this most universal of playthings [...] I have been removing sharpened sticks from under beds all half term."
- Daily Telegraph
"A book bursting with the most brilliant ideas – you will never have reluctant country-walkers again."
- Angels & Urchins
"These ideas will help the whole family get more hands-on with nature."
- BBC Wildlife magazine
"A guide to the ultimate free toys for children [...] Packed with ideas to suit the most adventurous and boisterous youngsters and those who'd rather take their time creating things to take home."
- Buckinghamshire Life
"This book, which offers over 70 interesting things to make or do with a stick, will open up a world of creativity: from fashioning a plain staff to wild weaving or making stick and paper lanterns. Simplicity and a deep satisfaction go together, as where two sticks and a piece of string achieve the sophisticated job of measuring the earth. There are loads of photographs to add inspiration."
- The Guardian
"Masses of suggestions for bushcraft, creative and imaginative play, games, woodcraft, conservation, music and more. Having someone's eye out is not included."
- Bookseller
"A beautiful and inspiring book, bursting with practical suggestions which will appeal to every child's imagination. Reading it I wanted to rush out to my nearest wood immediately."
- Julia Donaldson, Children's Laureate and author of The Gruffalo and Stick Man
"Packed with photos which bring the projects to life, this is a great book to have at hand to inspire children to get outside and play."
- Parents in Touch
"Refreshingly simple and endlessly entertaining, the stick is the essence of play [...] It speaks a universal language and it's free! Lively photographs opposite straightforward instructions summon the inspiration for making everything from a sun clock andnest to a slingshot and broomstick. All ages, if you dare."
- ForeWord Reviews
